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How do you heave to with main sail alone?

6K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  Argyle38 
#1 ·
Could someone please explain how you heave to with a main sail alone?

I've read a number of confusing and contradictory explanations in a few sailing books.

Thanks!
 
#2 ·
The few times we've tried that we ended up near head to wind, sheeted hard, rudder locked and the boat would pinch up a bit stall fall off and gentle round up, sat there doing very slow scallops at minimal speed.. But serious wave action would likely upset that delicate balance and I imagine that some boats won't do it well... Trial and error will tell.
 
#3 ·
I was out yesterday in 15-20 and I sheeted the main hard and let the tiller go and swing freely. I would head up and tack, then weather healm would build up in the other direction, I would tack back... and so on. Back and forth. Seemed to work well. But there wasn't much wave action....
 
#4 ·
Faster's method is what works well on my Pearson. I haven't had luck heaving to with the jib up, but I haven't tried since having working jib reefing (my previous system couldn't reef).

Fin keel boats with spade rudders generally don't heave to as nicely as a full keel boat, but they can do it. You just need to experiment.
 
#8 ·
If youre forereaching when hove to only with a deep reefed main ... you'll need to pull the traveller more to windward until you counter balance the forereaching. Too much traveller to windward and you'll start a stern-way, too little and you'll forereach ... slowly drifting forward. .... If 'perfect', you want to be able to develop a 'turbulence slick' in the water to windward which will 'pre-dump' / cause oncoming breaking waves to 'trip themselves' in that 'turbulence slick'.

Yup, a long keeled boat will do better with being hove to on only a deep reefed main than a fin keeler.
 
#11 ·
On small cat rigged (one sail) dinghies, the instruction is usually to put everything to leeward. So, on a port tack let the sail luff, when speed has dropped to almost zero start pulling the tiller to leeward, and put your body weight on the leeward rail. The rudder and hull balance will both tend to make the boat head up, the mostly luffing sail will tend to make the bow fall off. This is more of a 'resting position', rather than hove-to.
 
#12 ·
It has a lot to do withe the kind of boat you have. If you have a lot of windage forward (like my Downeaster and a lot of "classic" looking boats have) then you can typically heave-to under reefed main only with the bow of the boat being pushed off the wind and your main and rudder acting to push you toward the wind.

As long as you can balance the two forces, you are hove-to. If you have a little too much main up (not enough reef) then you will creep forward a bit and that's fore-reaching. Fore-reaching is a great technique to keep on a bit of way toward your destination, but you loose that "slick to windward" that people refer to which is vital if you are in a survival situation withe large, breaking waves.
 
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